Madison Keys Upsets Iga Swiatek in Australian Open Semifinals

Madison Keys narrowly defeated Iga Swiatek to advance to the Australian Open finals.

Madison Keys of the USA celebrates match point during her Women's semifinal win over Iga Swiatek of Poland during the 2025 Australian Open at Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Thursday, January 23, 2025. / IMAGO / AAP

It has been over seven years since Madison Keys made her first and only Grand Slam finals appearance at the 2017 US Open. Now, the 29-year-old has punched her ticket to the Australian Open finals to face World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka.

Over the past week, the 19-seed Keys has taken down multiple higher-seeded players, setting up a collision course against the second-seed Iga Swiatek. Against all odds, Keys defeated Swiatek in three sets: 5-7, 6-1, 7-6 (8).

While Keys has been dominant throughout her run in Melbourne, she showed resolve when defending against a match point. Keys faced elimination when Swiatek served for the match at 6-5 in the third set and was a point away from ending it at 40-30.

However, Swiatek let the match get away. She could not finish up the match point and eventually got broken by double-faulting. From there, Keys outdueled Swiatek in the first-to-10, win-by-two tiebreaker.

Keys was understandably overwhelmed after one of the biggest victories in her career. When asked how she felt during her on-court interview, Keys said, "Yeah. I'm still trying to catch up to everything that's happening. I'm in the finals. Wooo!"

Keys even asked, "Did she have a match point?" After receiving confirmation, Keys said, "I feel like I blacked out. At one point, I was just out there running around." On her way off the court, Keys signed the camera, "Oh my god," with a smiley face.

The American veteran tennis player is the oldest women's singles finalist at the Australian Open since Serena and Venus Williams in 2017. Once again, she will face long odds against Sabalenka in the finals. Sabalenka is 3-1 against Keys and is looking to win her third consecutive Australian Open title.

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